You are working with a segmented database, and you know the demographics and behaviours of your audience inside out, but how do you up your marketing game?
This is essentially the question I was asking myself when I joined a large corporation within the molecular biology reagents and instruments space a few years ago. There were a few things our team was doing well already like top of the funnel content, omnichannel marketing and distribution of content, but conversion of leads remained a challenge, and we knew we needed to start to properly nurture the contacts in our database. There was also an issue of list fatigue, on the back of the COVID pandemic, where overuse of the email marketing channel had created a set of subscribers whose attention would only be won back through personalization.
To turn leads into loyal customers, we needed to map their journey, documenting their interactions with all of our brilliant content-from awareness through to decision. This meant gaining an understanding of what info they needed and consumed at each stage, the content formats they preferred, and the brand touchpoints they encountered. By understanding this journey and creating content that supported their interactions with our brand across multiple channels, we managed to increase our conversions from 19% to 32% in just one year. And in all fairness, we only just got started with optimizing this part of our marketing function.
Thinking back, what was the critical starting point that helped us implement this project? Well, it all began with a lead mapping exercise. This article covers how we did it, what we learned and how much time and money was invested.
Budget considerations
If you’re thinking of investing in lead mapping, you’ll need a good tech stack, a content creation engine and of course a team to collaborate with and get things done.
For the sake of keeping this article shorter, we’ll assume you have already invested in tools such as, a CRM like Salesforce or HubSpot, a CMS like WordPress or Joomla, a marketing automation tool like Marketo or Pardot, web analytics like Google Analytics, and a social media management platform like Hootsuite. It’s worth mentioning that in our experience there is always some development work required to ensure that all the platforms making up your martech stack are integrated and are talking to each other. Zapier is a great tool offering plenty of the more standard APIs for this, and specialist agencies can do bespoke work for you should you have very specific requirements.
Content creation: Depending on where in the funnel you identify the most content gaps, you’ll need to set aside a budget for creating assets to plug those gaps. Most Life Sciences companies are very well covered with their top-of-the-funnel (ToFU) assets, but really need to work on their middle- (MoFU) and bottom-of-the-funnel (BoFU) engagement pieces. More on that below, but we recommend setting aside at least $80,000-$150,000 annually that can buy you a few case studies, editorials, testimonials or demos to use in your nurtures. Of course, the this figure is super conservative, and large corporates spend hundreds of thousands on content creation and distribution. Remember, the cost of content isn’t just the creation of it – it’s also the distribution part that eats up your budget. For instance, a PPL programme via a media partner can set you back around $20K (and that’s excluding the cost of creating the asset you’re gating through them). You’ll also need to budget for internal team time and any external consultancy you might need.
Team involvement
You’ll need to lean on colleagues who are experts with your platforms and tools. Here’s who should be part of your Tiger Team:
- Content strategist: To craft and align content with each stage of the lead journey.
- Data analyst: To crunch the numbers on lead behaviour and engagement.
- Sales team: To provide real-world insights on customer interactions.
- Marketing automation specialist: To set up and manage automated workflows.
Charting your map step-by-step
Assuming you’ve got your buyer personas defined and documented, start by identifying the key stages of your customer’s journey through your marketing funnel, then…
Step 1: Document the stages of the lead journey
Understand how your customers realize they have a problem (awareness), how they evaluate solutions (consideration), and how they decide to buy (decision/purchase). Think about the duration of each step and the channels your customers use. Some of our own data shows that Life Sciences customers can spend a great deal of time in the consideration phase – well over a year.
Customize these stages to fit your industry. For example, in MedTech, the consideration stage might involve clinical trial data reviews, detailed analysis of device performance metrics, evaluations of integration with hospital systems, scrutiny of patient outcomes and safety records, consultations with healthcare professionals, assessments of maintenance and training needs, reviews of cost-effectiveness and reimbursement scenarios, and comparisons of regulatory compliance like FDA or IVDR approval and ISO certifications.
Step 2: Map content to each stage
Align your content strategy with each stage of the lead journey. To do that, list all your existing content against the funnel. We did this by simply logging everything into an Excel sheet. This exercise alone, enabled us to spot gaps in our content that needed creating or updating straight away. It also showed us that we needed to invest into middle or bottom-of-the-funnel messaging a lot more than we had been doing up to that point. HubSpot tells us that 47% of buyers view three to five pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep (1), so having that range is critical. For each stage of the journey, look for the following content types and log content performance to assess its quality.
Awareness stage: Identify all your blog posts, whitepapers, eBooks, trade show messaging, ads and webinars. Track website visits, download rates, and social media engagement. Remember in the early stages of making decisions, buyers need inspiration, and so content needs to be focused on emphasizing the benefits for the buyer, addressing industry challenges and providing solutions, should they commit to the decision you want them to make. Content should be shorter, with fewer details; focused on what benefits will be received. At this stage, it’s critical to avoid the ‘say everything all at once’ with your content, that is so typical of marketing materials in our sector.
Consideration stage: HubSpot reports 96% of prospects do their own research before speaking with a human sales rep (2), so dig out all your case studies, comparison charts, application notes, FAQs, testimonials, and detailed product demos. Measure engagement times, return visits, and inquiries. This is the stage that a lot of prospects will linger in for quite some time. Therefore, a variety of content (in format and length), covering off any and all objections and questions your potential customers might have, is needed here. Gartner Group reports that in a typical firm with 100-500 employees, an average of 7 people are involved in buying decisions (3). At the same time, B2B buyers are 57%-70% of the way through buying research before contacting sales, says Spotio (4). This highlights the complexity of the B2B buying process, which involves multiple stakeholders in decision-making. This is particularly true in the Life Sciences, Biotech, and MedTech sectors. It also underscores the importance of a well-informed sales approach, as buyers are typically more than halfway through their research before they even engage with sales reps.
Decision stage: Consider any sample offers, free trials, consultations, technical sales support materials, detailed product documentation and anything else used by your sales folk to close. Look at trial sign-ups, consultation requests, documentation downloads, and proposal submissions. Remember, when the buyer is making a decision to commit their dollars to your company, they are looking for reassurance, so your messaging should be focusing on how the benefits they seek will be achieved.
Step 3: Implement multi-channel touchpoints
Use multiple channels to effectively reach your leads:
- Email marketing: Personalized campaigns based on behaviour and preferences.
- Social media: Share relevant content and engage with your audience.
- Trade shows: Great for product demos for customers who already know your brand and want to feel inspired and understood.
- Third party media partners: Indispensable for helping you with your content distribution and raising your brand visibility amongst broader scientific communities.
- SEO and SEM (all your digital estate): Ensure your content is easily found through search, which includes ads.
- Telemarketing: Great to follow-up with prospects that have shown an interest in your content and as a way of making leads ready for your sales folks.
Marketing automation platforms can synchronize efforts across these channels. Forrester says companies that automate lead management see a 10% or greater increase in revenue in 6-9 months. (5)
Step 4: Develop a lead nurturing workflow
Create workflows that nurture leads through the journey. Tools like HubSpot or Marketo can help set these up. These could be drip campaigns, outreach campaigns, or sales conversion campaigns. Each has its place in your follow-up and nurturing tactics.
For example, sales conversion campaigns might include a welcome series, cart abandonment, browse abandonment, win-back campaigns, or special automation for your VIPs — high or frequent spenders. The type of campaign a customer experiences depends on their behaviour and interactions on your site and other channels in use. If you are also using ABM, then the nurtures you have built out for those could greatly help generate impressive results. Read our in-depth article on ABM for science marketers here.
Automation improves KPIs across the board — conversion rates, sales, repeat orders, and customer lifetime value. Invesp reports that businesses using marketing automation to nurture prospects see a 451% increase in qualified leads (6). The more consistently customers encounter your brand, the more likely they are to buy.
Set up regular reviews of your automations to refine workflows and adjust lead scores as needed. Need a refresher on how to do lead scoring? Check out this quick guide.
Step 5: Monitor and optimize
Regularly monitoring your content’s performance in the funnel will enable you to tweak your lead map as needed. Key KPIs to track here include conversion rates, engagement rates, lead velocity, and ROI. A/B testing can help you trial different content, email subject lines, and CTAs to find what resonates best. Everything can be easily tracked on custom dashboards that you can build to help you.
Remember to also engage product and sales teams for feedback and updates and listen to what customers and key accounts have to say to identify areas for improvement.
Lead mapping lays the groundwork for effective lead scoring and nurturing, both of which are central to creating an efficient lead management process. MarketingSherpa tells us that 79% of marketing leads never convert into sales due to a lack of lead nurturing (7), and we know from experience that the majority of companies in our sector admit to doing no or very little lead nurturing.
How much more money can your business make by introducing effective lead management? Find out here or talk to us if you’re ready to start working through how to make the most of your hard-earned leads.
References:
- Hubspot. (2024). The Top Marketing Trends of 2024 & How They’ve Changed Since 2023 https://www.hubspot.com/state-of-marketing
- Hubspot. (2024). The Top Marketing Trends of 2024 & How They’ve Changed Since 2023 https://www.hubspot.com/state-of-marketing
- Gartner Group. The B2B Buying Journey: Key Stages and How to Optimize Them (gartner.com)
- Spotio. (2024). 149 Eye-Opening Sales Stats to Consider in 2024 (By Category) (spotio.com)
- Forrester. (2017). The Total Economic Impact™ of Marketing Automation. https://www.forrester.com/policies/tei/
- Invesp. (2018). Marketing Automation Statistics. https://www.invespcro.com/blog/marketing-automation/
- MarketingSherpa. (2018). Lead Nurturing Benchmark Report. https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/chart/roi-lead-nurturing
